The Pro commissa Bull, issued by Pope Clement VIII on 15th August 1592, set up a public administration and control system of the communities of the Pontifical States that worked up until 1847. This system was based on the Tabella (or Libretto) and its drafting, preventive approval and final control process. As a technical practice, the Tabella was a budget for these communities although it was peculiar and in an early stage of development, compared to the way this is usually intended in recent times. In fact, it showed some of the most relevant characteristics of a modern government budget, especially with reference to its functions, drafting principles and contents. If the Tabella was, in fact, a budget for communities, it will be necessary to revise the history of the public administration budget as it results from literature. According to an acknowledged interpretation, the budget, in modern terms, is an evolutionary stage of a State’s balance sheet. It was introduced in representative democracy at the time when there was a division of political power among legislative, executive and judiciary branches (the so-called separation of powers). From that time onward, the budget was conceived as a means to allow the legislative to control the executive branch. So, the separation of powers could have brought about the creation of the budget. On the contrary, in Italian territories the budget cannot be considered an evolutionary stage of the State’s balance sheet as the State became a representative democracy. Indeed, the Tabella was the configuration of the balance of the communities of the Pontifical States, and it appeared long before the birth of the first representative democracies. Moreover, the Tabella was introduced to facilitate control by the central government over the local governments and to enable the centralization of power.

The Pro commissa Bull, issued by Pope Clement VIII on 15th August 1592, set up a public administration and control system of the communities of the Pontifical States that worked up until 1847. This system was based on the Tabella (or Libretto) and its drafting, preventive approval and final control process. As a technical practice, the Tabella was a budget for these communities although it was peculiar and in an early stage of development, compared to the way this is usually intended in recent times. In fact, it showed some of the most relevant characteristics of a modern government budget, especially with reference to its functions, drafting principles and contents. If the Tabella was, in fact, a budget for communities, it will be necessary to revise the history of the public administration budget as it results from literature. According to an acknowledged interpretation, the budget, in modern terms, is an evolutionary stage of a State’s balance sheet. It was introduced in representative democracy at the time when there was a division of political power among legislative, executive and judiciary branches (the so-called separation of powers). From that time onward, the budget was conceived as a means to allow the legislative to control the executive branch. So, the separation of powers could have brought about the creation of the budget. On the contrary, in Italian territories the budget cannot be considered an evolutionary stage of the State’s balance sheet as the State became a representative democracy. Indeed, the Tabella was the configuration of the balance of the communities of the Pontifical States, and it appeared long before the birth of the first representative democracies. Moreover, the Tabella was introduced to facilitate control by the central government over the local governments and to enable the centralization of power.